Pass the Funyuns

Thursday 20Atlanta-born, -bred, -based artist Cody Chesnutt is a singer’s singer. Ranging from soul to rock with frequent stops in funk and hip-hop, The Headphone Masterpiece is essential Chesnutt. Its influence has reached the Roots and Radiohead’s Thom Yorke, who counts Chesnutt among his favorite acts. Sold! The song man sings at Belly Up tonight behind SanFran guitar man Martin Luther and local soloist Steph Johnson.... Viejas Arena stages a couple of big rawk shows this weekend, including Friday-night sets by proto punks Green Day and Scot-pop openers Franz Ferdinand. Green Day followed up 2004’s mega-hit pop-punk opera American Idiot this year with 21st Century Breakdown, “another hour-plus slab of jumped-up alt-rock as political/musical theater — overlong, exhausting, and corny as hell.” Pitchfork, man, they can take the fun out of Funyuns. Go for the old stuff. Ferdinand’s got a new one, too, Tonight, that the hit crits seem to like. Gives me a rash, though.... Downtown, award-winning Mexi alt-rock band Panda hits House of Blues behind their latest, Poetics...and Casbah fills an indie-pop bill with Long Island quartet As Tall as Lions and locals Lanterns and Color of Glass.

Friday 21Viejas Arena — that’s the old Cox, btw — welcomes Southern gents Kings of Leon and the Whigs. Saw Kings on SNL recently, and they looked and sounded arena-ready. Only by the Night and “Sex on Fire” garnered Grammy nods for the Nashville quartet and put them on the international map and fast track. But you probably prefer their older, grungier stuff, huh, cool guy? That’s what the Whigs’re for, to keep it real. The Atlanta band’s Mission Control is one country-fried power-pop platter that resonates live.... Out the mainstream: Yesterday magazine hosts a hit parade for its inaugural issue of Southland music news and pop-culture isms at Ruby Room, featurin’ — big breath — Get Back Loretta, Silent Comedy, the Austin James Band, Crash Encore, and Burning of Rome. That’d be the affair to attend, my friend. Grab the read at Paras, M-Theory, or Lou’s.... Dago indie darlings Pinback play the postrace in the paddock up at Del Mar Friday night. Rob and Zack landed squarely at Temporary Residence after the demise of Touch & Go, and word is their first one there’s due to drop early next year.... When Life Gives You Lemons, You Paint That Shit Gold. Minneapolis alt-hop duo Atmosphere fills the Voodoo Room at House of Blues for a Casbah-curated gig with St. Paulies’ Eyedea & Abilities. Minnesotans represent!.... Chula Veesta garage-punks the Powerchords release their shiny seven-incher in Soda Bar with like-minded locals the Atoms and Bay Area buds Casy & Brian in support.

Saturday 22South Bay punk perennials the Zeros keep this summer’s reunion rolling into Casbah Saturday night. The quartet rocked socks at Bar Pink a couple months ago. Did you ever get your hands on that Bomp compilation Don’t Push Me Around? It’s all on there. The Dabbers and Old In Out will open the show.... Freaky scary goth rocker Marilyn Manson visits the House of Blues. The corseted one has a new joint out on Interscope, The High End of Low.... Anthology presents Southern slide master Sonny Landreth. The bluesman launched Landfall Records last year with his solo collection From the Reach, featuring Eric Clapton, Mark Knopfler, and a list of who’s who in blues-rock. None of whom’ll be there or are necessary — dude shreds.... Belly Up books Atlanta band Arrested Development. The Grammy-winning trip-hoppers have been rocking the mic with a positive vibe for more than 20 years, taking the piss out of gangstas with Afrocentric raps. Up-and-coming SD homies TheBREAX will set the stage.... Uptown, Soda Bar taps Long Beach’s surfy, summery garage gang Tijuana Panthers...and Portland experimentalists Ramona Falls land at Bar Pink with Sacto trio Silver Darling.

Sunday 23Parisian sisters Hélène and Célia Faussart call themselves Les Nubians and can count themselves among R&B Grammy nominees. Those who know recommend singles “Makeda” and “Je Veux D’la Musique” for entry. They grace Belly Up with local soul-jam band the Earful.... Garage-pop peeps the Beaters (ex-Sess) and Anasazis pull into Soda Bar.... And Bar Pink bills Charleston folk-rock duo the Working Title. The drum-n-bass dudes are out to tout debut homemade disc Bone Island. Check it out at myspace.com/theworkingtitle.

Monday 24You didn’t get tickets to the sold-out Built to Spill slash Prids show at Casbah, did you, rhetorical period. Don’t be all Anti-Monday about it; check out where your favorite Boise band’ll be Wednesday night, get tickets, get happy, and go see funky soul brothers the Styletones at Bar Pink. Better, concerned question mark?

Tuesday 25Six Organs of Admittance roll into Casbah Tuesday night. Guitar guru Ben Chasny under the Six Organs moniker “explores the outer limits of sound and cosmic themes,” according to Keith Boyd over at blogsandiego.com. Go there for a fervent review of Chas’s latest, Luminous Night, and an interview with the psych-folkie. With Seattle freak-folk collective Master Musicians of Bukkake (“Enter the Wang”...”Pipestone Octopus with Horseheart”...no?) this’d be the gig to get to Tuesday night.... Miss the doors at that one, Radio Room’s got your avant pop, with hometown hits QQC and Portland boy-girl group the Prids, taking advantage of their night off the Built to Spill tour to play s’more. The quartet’s take on post-rock guitar pop is pretty rad. Go to their MySpace for a taste.

Wednesday 26Here y’are: Built to Spill play at the Belly Up Tavern in Solana Beach. The Prids and Oakland Goths Catholic Comb go first. At this typing, it has not been sold out, but I type sloooowwwwly, so who knows by the time I finish. Recommend calling club qckly.... Two bass, two drums, and one big guitar squall. Casbah chucks Detroit City Dirtbombs, who are out behind last year’s In the Red collection We Have You Surrounded. Not the band’s best, but it doesn’t drop them from Spin’s list of Top 25 Live Acts of All Time Anywhere. The Sermon and Death Eaters open.... Down the street, Canadian roots-rock collective the Duhks waddle into Anthology.... And reggae dub master Lee “Scratch” Perry drifts into Canes. The 73-year-old Jamaican native’s latest has a telling title: The Great Upsetter. — Barnaby Monk